before 1000;Middle English;late Old Englishprūd, prūt arrogant (cognate with Old Norseprūthr stately, fine), apparently < Vulgar Latin; compare Old Frenchprud, prod gallant, Late Latinprōde useful, Latinprōdesse to be of worth

Related forms

proudly, adverb

proudness, noun

quasi-proud, adjective

quasi-proudly, adverb

unproud, adjective

unproudly, adverb

Synonyms

1. contented, self-satisfied. 2. overbearing, self-important, disdainful, imperious, presumptuous. Proud,arrogant,haughty imply a consciousness of, or a belief in, one's superiority in some respect. Proud implies sensitiveness, lofty self-respect, or jealous preservation of one's dignity, station, and the like. It may refer to an affectionate admiration of or a justifiable pride concerning someone else: proud of his son.Arrogant applies to insolent or overbearing behavior, arising from an exaggerated belief in one's importance: arrogant rudeness.Haughty implies lofty reserve and confident, often disdainful assumption of superiority over others: the haughty manner of the butler in the play.6. noble, imposing, splendid.

Meaning "elated by some act, fact, or thing" is from mid-13c. To do (someone) proud attested by 1819. Related: Proudness. "The -d- in prodesse is probably due to the influence of forms like red-eo-, 'I go back,' red-imo- 'I buy back,' etc." [OED]. The Old English form with -te probably is from or influenced by pride.

The sense of "have a high opinion of oneself," not found in Old French, might reflect the Anglo-Saxons' opinion of the Norman knights who called themselves "proud." Old Norse pruðr, probably from the same French source, had only the sense "brave, gallant, magnificent, stately" (cf. Icelandic pruður, Middle Swedish prudh, Middle Danish prud). Likewise a group of "pride" words in the Romance languages -- e.g. French orgueil, Italian orgoglio, Spanish orgullo -- are borrowings from Germanic, where they had positive senses (cf. Old High German urgol "distinguished").

Most Indo-European languages use the same word for "proud" in its good and bad senses, but in many the bad sense seems to be the earlier one. The usual way to form the word is by some compound of terms for "over" or "high" and words for "heart," "mood," "thought," or "appearance;" e.g. Greek hyperephanos, literally "over-appearing;" Gothic hauhþuhts, literally "high-conscience." Old English had ofermodig "over-moody" ("mood" in Anglo-Saxon was a much more potent word than presently) and heahheort "high-heart." Words for "proud" in other Indo-European languages sometimes reflect a physical sense of being swollen or puffed up; cf. Welsh balch, probably from a root meaning "to swell," and Modern Greek kamari, from ancient Greek kamarou "furnish with a vault or arched cover," with a sense evolution via "make an arch," to "puff out the chest," to "be puffed up" (cf. English slang chesty).